family-economics

Geoff Hiscock profiles Asia's top 100 billionaires in this fascinating overview of the region's economic landscape. The first half of the book examines the Asian economy, setting the stage for the later depictions of the Asian rich and famous. Hiscook's in-depth reporting shines, as does his conversational style. We from getAbstract recommend this book to all readers with an interest in the global economy.

Geoff Hiscock book is invaluable for the wealth of information provided in a quick and easy to read overview about those fortune origins, networks, current trends and a list of the 100 richest with a biography for each. It does not only allow to understand region's mentality but have an insight on the major players of the continent. A good start for further study of Asia's business world.

These best kept secrets aren't very well kept secrets, because I knew most of them already. I heard some of these secrets from other sources before I heard them from Peter Thomson. However, they are great communication skills and they do work. I just didn't like Peter Thomson's low-pitched English accent and voice very much. I found it hard to concentrate on what he was saying even when I was using some of his listening techniques. I had to turn the volume way up and the bass way down on my car stereo in order to digest what he was saying. Maybe his book would be better for me. Overall, it's a very good audio cd if you can stand to listen to it. (4.5 stars)

Peter Thompson gives a comprehensive method of improving your communication skills. He gives 9 "secrets" and expounds on them, giving examples, defining them, and tell you how to improve them. These secrets (not in any particular order) include active listening, using body language, asking questions, and others.

The great thing about it is that it is entertaining and practical. I enjoyed listening to it and then trying to apply them in my life. Any person in business needs these skills, and I would say anyone can benefit from it, since we all communicate with others (well, unless you are a hermit in the mountains I suppose).

He also gives tips on how to better practice these skills and use the audio. Overall, it was a great program.

Hal Beers and I had very similar careers. Navy Jet Fighter Pilot to Lockheed Space Systems Division; David's observations of a latter day "Life With Father" struck a lot of familiar and abused nerves. I joined LMSC about a year earlier than Hal. We were in the same organization at the advent of space systems. The thrill (like Startrek) to go where no man has been before was a real rush. Yet it grew old. We aged. (Always the commute to the west Santa Clara Valley was a bitch. This added tension to a terribly tense job.) The thrill of being the first started to erode when we saw the third and fourth generations of young engineers making the same stupid mistakes we made (with five inch slide rules not IBM PCs with Bill Gates software. Dave missed a few of the high points such as the Nixon post-Viet Nam stagflation and decline in the space-biz where LMSC Sunnyvale's employment dropped from almost 40,000 to about 12,500. We used to track it with our paycheck numbers. In our house "I could be out on the street on Monday Morning" was a classic oft-repeated gag line by my kids - I gagged because it was so close to reality. The book helped me relive some of my greatest and worse hours. Although Hal and I separated about five years after he joined the Company, David's story applies to all of us. The almost hopeless state we drove ourselves and our families. Yet we survived. My kids grew up - graduating from Saratoga High in 1969 and were thrown right into a new life I never dreamed of - Viet Nam riots, Haight-Ashbury, free love, rock and roll and recreational pharmaceuticals. Yet they too survived. David got a little too maudlin. His retrospective on the changes sort of caused the book to drag towards the end. Yet it is an accurate slice of life with the bright stars and Blue Skies of the Cold War - winning ulcers or coronary by-passes in lieu of medals. Its over. I'm sure Pericles grandchildren would agree that life goes on - and humans are by nature survivors. Darwin avered that we adapt. We did and are still adapting. /s/ Bill Eaton, LMSC 1959-1983

While my dad worked in a steel mill in western Pa. this is my story too. It is the story of growing up, Catholic, in the 60's & 70's in a small town. The Lost in Space chapter is fun, since I collect LIS toys now.The author was shooting higher than this, but it hit me emotionally at a lower level. I enjoyed the book, and have re-read it many times.

Men putting their families before careers, promotions and fatter paychecks? That isn't the stereotypical image most of us have of career-minded fathers. Yet that's what Robert Blodgett proposes men do in his book, "Family First."

It's a notion, and a book that has been needed for a long time.

Blodgett will disturb a few people with this book, but a lot of fathers will not only be grateful for what Blodgett proposes, but for his "here's how to do it" approach. He makes it clear how readers who want to can apply his techniques in their own lives. This isn't a book of "shoulds". It shows readers how to give one's family priority and still have a viable career. "Family First was written to give you tools, ideas and strategies to help you navigate through your own challenges in life," writes Blogett toward the end of his book. Those who read Family First, and apply Blodgett's techniques in their lives, will probably be grateful they did. I just wish such a book had been written 30+ years ago when our children were young. What a difference it might have made.

This is an insigthful book that will grab fathers' attention. Robert gives good advice and share his experience in putting his family first. EVERY MAN SHOULD READ THIS BOOK!!

As an american farmer, I was curious as to how a non-farmer would depict a way of life so diffrent from his own. I think Richard did a fine job in showing just how tough things can be sometimes and also the humor that goes along with this way of life. I did find a few technical errors that would not be noticeable to any one unfamilar with farming or its equipment. Overall this is a very good book for any one curious about "life down on the farm" or any one just looking for a good light read. I have read and reread this book several times and will probably do so again in the future. So there you have it, an endorsement from a farmer for a book about a farmer.

What a damned shame this book is out of print! If it were up to me, this book would be required reading for anyone planning to relocate to the midwest from either the east or west coast, particularly if you grew up in the suburbs.

FARM details the deceptively complicated life of a midwestern farm couple, their 3 kids, two dogs and assorted friends, crops, livestock, farm machinery, etc. Farming is certainly no walk in the park. The further you venture into this book, the more emotionally exhausted you feel as Rhodes brings home in brilliant detail all the pulls, pushes, tugs, restraints and jolts that go into this lifestyle. How do they do it?

Around the biographical data concerning the Bauer family, Rhodes introduces a staggering array of ancillary subjects, summarizing each with deadly accuracy coupled with a comfortable and easy-to-digest writing style. (Even soils and compactor mechanics are rendered comprehensible for those of us who never "tested well" on mechanical reasoning!)

For east/west coast new arrivals to the midwest who couldn't feel more lost if they'd just landed on Jupiter, this book sheds lots of light on many of the onstensibly incomprehensible mores, rhythms, habits and tendencies of midwestern life that persist in the behavioral patterns of even those who are more than a generation removed from the farm or the small town. With Rhodes as your guide, it's easier to understand the positive aspects of why they do what they do and less painful and exasperating to conform yourself to behaviors that will make them accept you more. I'd need a calculator to add up all the dumb mistakes I could have avoided over the past 10 years if I'd been armed with the information contained in Rhodes' book.

However, 1989 was a long time ago. Since then a new breed of "agri-preneurs" led by Ron Macher, Small Farm Today, the various editors of Storey Books and others is slowly guiding America's farmers away from traditional wholesale masochism toward direct marketing of specialty crops and livestock.

Rhodes' FARM and Macher's MAKING YOUR SMALL FARM PROFITABLE form a veritable old and new testament of American farming -- and an important primer for the aging suburban Boomer who wants to replace lifelong cluelessness with a practical body of knowledge with which to become at least a small part of the solution -- the voting booth, perhaps?!!

Time Management skills are essential for successful people the book deals with practical techniques, which have helped the leading people in business reach the pinnacles of their careers. The skills explained in the book helps you to become reliable and effective and show you how to identify and focus on the activities that give you the greatest returns by explaining goal setting, which is a vitally important skill for achieving what you want to achieve with your life. It is neatly summed up in the Pareto Principle, or the "80:20 Rule". This argues that typically 80% of unfocussed effort generates only 20% of results. The remaining 80% of results are achieved with only 20% of the effort. While the ratio is not always 80:20, this broad pattern of a small proportion of activity generating non-scalar returns recurs so frequently as to be the norm in many areas. It also talks about issues like learn to say no, learn to prioritize, combine several activities, doing subordinate's work, doing the work of others, scheduling projects, monitoring staff, and setting long-term objectives. The absence of personal time management is characterized by last minute rushes to meet deadlines, days, which seem somehow to slip unproductively by, crises, which loom unexpected from nowhere. This sort of environment leads to inordinate stress and degradation of performance. Poor time management is often a symptom of over confidence: techniques, which used to work with small projects and workloads, are simply reused with large ones. However, inefficiencies, which were insignificant in the small role, are ludicrous in the large. You cannot drive a motor bike like a bicycle, nor can you manage a supermarket-chain like a market stall. The demands, the problems, and the payoffs for increased efficiency are all larger as your responsibility grows; you must learn to apply proper techniques, or be bettered by those who do. Possibly, the reason Time Management is poorly practiced is that it so seldom forms a measured part of appraisal and performance review; what many fail to foresee, however, is how intimately it is connected to aspects, which do. Leslie Parlow's, excellent practical application of Time Management.By Vivek Dixit, Stanford.edu.

While this book explores work-family issues, it also gives concrete suggestions about how to improve management processes and allow workers more personal time without decreasing productivity. Essentially, the thesis of the book is that workers that can work uninterrupted for a significant period each day are more productive and efficient. This thesis is supported by a study done by the author at a Fortune 500 company named "Ditto" (probably Xerox in real life).

However, a depressing aspect of the book is that once higher productivity is achieved, Ditto Corp just piles on more work! Anyone who has worked in a high-stress, tight-deadline environment will be able to identify with the situations in this book.

In terms of action orientation, I found this book better than "Time Bind" by Arlie Hochschild. It also leaves out the liberal politics. Give it as an anonymous gift to the the CEO of your company!

I found this book easy to read, and packed full of helpful information, tools, suggestions and hints. The author included several self-tests for you to discover how you communicate and give feedback. Then, once you knew where your weak areas were, there was ample material to assist you in improving. Charts give examples, case studies allow you to picture how to use what you've learned, exercises offer practice, and the graphics are
appropriate and memorable. This book is for anyone who wants to improve his/her communication skills (and who among us doesn't want to do that!?).

Patti covers the differences in men's and women's communication approaches, overcoming negative self-talk, and a DASR (Describe, Acknowledge, Specify, Reaffirm) technique that will guide you in your communications whether with spouse, parent, child, friend, boss, or acquaintance, throughout the rest of your life. I highly recommend it for everyone to read!

I would highly recommend the book "Giving and Receiving Feedback" by Patti Hathaway,CSP to anyone who wants to improve their business or personal relationships building constructive communication.

On a personal note the planning sections and suggestions can help me redirect some of the things I have been doing and improve my relationships. One of the suggestions I liked the best concerned giving reviews. When giving a review present the negative first, then end the review on an upward appraisal note.

If the only section in the book was the section on the difference in how men and women communicate it would be worth buying the book for, but there are so many more great ideas you should be ordering the book now instead of reading this review.

Jacobsen, a psychotherapist and career counselor, has written an extensive examination of family dynamics and how one generation affects another in terms of career limits/expectations/success/failure. It's a painful topic, and one which affects us all. Through her questions and exercises, the reader can take a fresh look at the unfulfilled quests of one's parents and grandparents, because these desires are as much your inheritance as the old silver and the family Bible. As a career counselor, I know that clients can become frustrated with probing of family patterns, wondering what that has to do with writing a resume or accepting a new position, but I know that if we don't look for patterns, the client is doomed to continue living out an unsatisfactory legacy. Furthermore, one can find surprising strength and affirmation in the process, so the quest is well worth it. Caution to parents: If you read this little book, you might be overwhelmed at times by ways you have stunted your children's vocational development. Whether you have given specific feedback or all-purpose reinforcement, there's something wrong with it. Before reporting yourself as a career thwarter, turn to the last section called Helping Your Children Follow their Dreams. Jacobsen is to be commended for tackling a difficult and painful subject. This book is useful for those in stuck places as well as those who serve them.

I found this book to be very helpful in working through family dreams in a sense not directly related to career but having to do more with a hand me down dream about a way of life. Growing up in Brooklyn, in a large family always financially challenged, we moved from apartment to apartment under a shared dream that we would someday have the "house in the country." My father, myself and other siblings were also involved in show business for a time, although I did not continue beyond what I needed to do then to be part of this other hand me down family dream: Making it in the big time. Jacobsen's book helped me to clarify this dual aspect of my family's influence (quest for rootedness and finding a voice) on my life course (or "career"), to acknowledge that one was put on hold (voice) while I achieved the other (rootedness), and that I can now reclaim and develop the other on my own terms even if it does not yield a career in the conventional sense. So even if you are not unhappy with your current job or career, read this book for transformational insight on the family dreams animating your life.

This is a well researched account of Arabia and one family's growth over the last 100 years. Informative and full of interesting facts, it is at times serious, at times light hearted but always entertaining.

This book is of a greate value to many readers. It is facinating to look at a society in transformation. For non-Arab wishing to do business with Arabs, it is a manual.

Jacquelyn Dowd Hall and the other writers of _Like a Family_ created a tour-de-force study of cotton mill towns in the American South. It is a very rare book that captures such a clear, complex sense of history; Hall balances a careful sense of detail with a sweeping picture of life in the cotton-mill South by using a combination of oral and written sources. This book is perfect for scholars and non-scholars alike, and richly conjures a full picture of this period in American history.

Like a Family interestingly and accurately portrays life in southern cotton mills and mill towns in the central southeast, primarily North Carolina. The book examines family, work and community life; it is a social, cultural and political history. Working in the mills was harsh, dangerous and monotonous. Most employees left farms and a rural way of life to toil in the mills; for these people living under the constant eye of mill management was humiliating at times. The mills controlled not only the worker's jobs, but their housing, churches, schools, entertainment and shopping through company stores. It is important to note that this book does not leave out women's perspectives, as many mill workers were young women and working mothers.

A great deal of the content of this book was provided by interviews done in the 1980's of people who worked in the mills and lived in mill communities. This oral history is both fascinating and priceless. Most of the mills have closed and the memory and history of them is becoming scarcer to find as most of the mill workers who lived during the era portrayed in this book have died.

While most of the mills have closed, central North Carolina is dotted with the communities that are remains of old mill towns. I am from this region and my mother lives in Bynum, NC, a mill town dating from the mid-19th century. Several of her neighbors were interviewed for and written about in Like a Family. The old company store still serves as a post office and the mill community's church has regular worshipers. Unfortunately the rest of the community from the mill days, including the mill itself (which closed in the early 1980's and has burned down recently), have succumbed to time and aging from the elements.